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Spatiotemporal analysis of the first wave of COVID-19 hospitalisations in Birmingham, UK
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  • Published on: 15 October 2021
    Spatiotemporal analysis of COVID-19 hospitalisations
    • Rodney P Jones, Statistical Advisor Healthcare Analysis & Forecasting

    This is an extreemly powerful approach. Can it be suggested that rather than convert the patients home to a grid coordinate that researchers use the readily available Output Area Classification (OAC) which is derived from census data and groups each Output area (OA) into a series of detailed and heirachical social groups. The OAC is available from the Office for National Statistics and each OAC likewise has a population centroid in Eastings and Northings [See data sources in 1,2]. Social groups capture the nuances of social behaviours and circumstances.
    The OAC is a hugely valuable tool and has been used to differentiate admissions into Critical Care and unpublished work shows that it is very valuable at determining admission rates from the Emergency Department.
    Hopefully this suggestion will be of value.

    References

    1. Beeknoo N, Jones R. Using Social Groups to Locate Areas with High Emergency Department Attendance, Subsequent Inpatient Admission and Need for Critical Care. BJMMR 2016; 18(6): 1-23. http://www.sciencedomain.org/abstract/16693

    2. Beeknoo N, Jones R. Using social groups to locate areas of high utilization of critical care. BJHCM 2016; 22(11): 551-560. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjhc.2016.22.11.551

    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.